Kundu: Prince of Riverton City is a coming-of-age tale that centers around a young man with albinism living in poverty-stricken Jamaica. Where did the idea for this novel come from?

From age 6 to 9, I lived in Waterhouse, a volatile part of Kingston, Jamaica.  There were daily skirmishes over territory between warring political gangs, year-round.  There was a boy about my age who lived in the house directly across from the one-bedroom house my family rented.  We never spoke, but his grandmother would always yell at him for various things.

As a child, and even now as an adult, I find myself wondering what happened to him.  Did he get out of Waterhouse? Was he a doctor now?  Was he even alive?

I will never know the answers to those questions, so I created a life for him.

What kind of research did you do for this novel to ensure you captured the essence of the story’s theme?

I needed to research significant events in Jamaica in 1980.  It was an election year as well as a time of natural disasters and political warfare.

I sourced archival reports from the Jamaica Gleaner Newspaper and reports from the local police department. I also visited Jamaica six times in two years.  I found myself driving on the outskirts of Riverton City at night, which wasn’t a good idea: it still remained a dangerous place to be.

I enjoyed the depth of the main character, Kundu. What was your process to bring that character to life?

I have a theory that everyone – every character – has felt like an outsider at some point in their lives: You’re short, have an odd accent, skinny, old, bald, dark skin, thick glasses. The character has to fight and grow if they are to live.  I wanted Kundu to wear his peculiarity on his skin.

His difference is obvious, but his sameness, his empathy, his loyalty, bleeds through.  To create Kundu, I imagined being odd, or different to everyone.

Emotionally, I had to make space for my twelve-year-old self.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

I’m not 100% sure, but the second book of a Kundu trilogy could be next. Targeting the winter of 2026.

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